John Comerford: On college affordability, the White House gets it half right

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The State Journal-Register

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Posted Mar. 20, 2014 at 1:01 AM

Posted Mar. 20, 2014 at 1:01 AM

It is hard to get a headline for educational reform. Student access, retention rates and learning outcomes make for dry reading.

So you would be forgiven if you missed the fact that on Jan. 16 President Barack Obama hosted college and university leaders from across the country to discuss how to improve Americans’ access to college. This is the latest in a series of efforts from the White House to highlight the need to give more people a chance at higher education.

That’s the good news. The president has the biggest megaphone on the planet, and this is an issue that more people should be paying attention to. The average college tuition now takes up nearly 40 percent of median family income. In the past 30 years, the cost of tuition has increased 250 percent in constant dollars.

Families cannot afford it anymore. While 53 percent of students from families in the top 20 percent of incomes graduate from college, only 11 percent of students from the lowest 20 percent of family incomes will ever get a college degree.

The American dream, it seems, is increasingly possible only if your parents achieved it first.

The bad news is the White House is focused on the wrong solutions.

In conjunction with the meeting, the White House released 100 commitments from states and colleges aimed at increasing college access. The list is a veritable who’s who of higher education, dominated by state flagship and wealthy private universities. Their commitments include a few more scholarships or campus support programs for low-income students.

A cynic might say these are largely symbolic gestures that will help only a handful of students. An optimist might hope that the commitments represent institutions stepping up to mission of access and affordability.

Unfortunately, the list ignores a large number of institutions that have had exactly that mission for decades or even centuries. Regional state colleges have a strong record of access and affordability. There are many private colleges that put millions of dollars into need-based scholarships and have success rates for low-income students that exceed other sectors.

Yet, you will not find many of them on the White House’s list.

As an example, Blackburn College has offered the Work Program for 100 years, offering students a chance to earn much of the “gap” between college scholarships and costs. Add to this Blackburn’s new program through which tuition is free for high-need students, and you have a model institution that the Obama administration ought to be holding up as an example for the nation.

Blackburn is just one example of the institutions ignored by the list.

It seems the White House has fallen into two traps. First, that only “new” ideas and commitments are worth celebrating. And second, that wealthy and prestigious institutions must lead the way.

Page 2 of 2 - These are fallacies. There are hundreds of colleges that have taken the problems of access and affordability seriously for years. We should be happy that wealthy and prestigious institutions are going to do more for low-income students, but most students still will never have access to this elite group of institutions.

In fact, what matters most is students finding their “fit” at colleges that have great educational programs, regardless of institutional prestige.

The White House should look where these students actually attend. I predict it would be happily surprised to find regional colleges that have made it their mission to serve low-income students every day. No White House pressure required.